Topic: Rising Son

Blood Sister

Date: 2015-03-18 20:14 EST
Rising Son

Part I: House of the Twins

~~~

"Turn your face to the sun and shadows fall behind you." - Charlotte Witton

~~~

RhyDin. Dragon's Gate. House of the Twins.

The empty rooms of the small, two story home amplified the smallest noises; every creak and groan from the ceiling and walls as the wind blew outside was turned into a louder than natural distraction. The sound of a heeled shoe or boot would be like that of a hammer within, with every fall. The only sound, with the exception being the wind and the boards, which filled the space now however was the soft rustle of page upon page being turned; sometimes that monotony was broken as a nail traced a scratchy trail down a brittle page of the tome which sat open in the readers lap. That reader, from all appearances was one of the owners of the house, certainly the one in whose name it was in.

For legal purposes.

She sat demurely, one leg tucked underneath another at the ankle, a book suspended gently in her lap - just as she herself was suspended by inky tendrils of darkness that seemed to seep up from between the floorboards itself and cradle her as though a throne made specifically to suit her. As she scanned the book, and waited on the inevitable arrival of her sister, her head lilted down causing raven black locks to fall forward and almost obscure her eyes; one might assume from her poise, posture, and the decidedly annoyed look in her eyes as they focused on the offending strand of hair before turning back to the book, that the twin who waited was none other than Lydia Tolmay.

Leta quietly made her way to the back of the house. Her simple lock pick set was enough to get her into the kitchen door. It was clear she wasn't expecting this to be a complicated attempt from her more casual attire of black jeans and simple black tank top. Her long black hair flew in loose waves around her shoulders as she came inside and closed the door behind her. Her lax behaviors in all this was made even more evident by the soft sound the door made when she closed it. Lydia felt at home here and, although she wouldn't admit it, Leta was beginning to feel at ease in the place too. She had been to the place a few times before when Lydia was just looking at it, but when she found out Lydia finally purchased the house, Leta wanted to give it a more thorough inspection. She began to make her way out of the kitchen and proceeded into the dining room. She stopped mid step in the door way when she saw her twin.

Dy Hauc

Date: 2015-03-18 20:40 EST
Lydia made no move to look up towards Leta's intrusion, and simply turned the page again, still reading when she murmured, "I was beginning to wonder when your curiosity would get the better of you." Another page was turned, and she scanned midway down with her finger, "I thought you'd enjoy the nostalgia of using your picks again; someone is coming to install digital locks tomorrow. Oh, and the contractor that fronts for the Company..." I hired someone else."

Leta stared at her a moment. Lydia was supposed to be working in her office at school about now, Leta thought anyway. She usually had a pretty good handle on her sister's schedule. She tried to focus on what she was saying. She was so used to her sister being the one surprised by her presence that she wasn't expecting this sudden turn of events. She opened her mouth to give her repugnant rebuttal in defense of her favored lock picks but her mouth dropped open further as Lydia casually mentioned thwarting her efforts to keep a Company spy on her.

Leta composed herself a moment, then said in a calm tone, "Don't worry about it, sis. I'm sure you'll get the same quality service one way or another." She began to take a few steps towards her twin, taking an initial interest in the book Lydia was so intently focused on, but Leta soon turned her attention to the shadowy tendrils that seemed to support her sister instead.

Another page was turned, and still Lydia didn't look up. "You've heard the one about the cat, haven't you? And curiosity?" The book shut quickly with a thwomp. "You'll get it, I'm sure." Now she looked up and met Leta's eyes - as much as she could as they were focused on her method of reclining. "And I'm sure I'll get it too. The same....quality service." The smile she offered was bland, and artificial; just as her initial glance had been rather flat, as though most emotion except haughty condescension had been drained from her, or at least suppressed.

Upon closer inspection, the tendrils which held Lydia aloft were not shadowy at all - they were more opaque than shadow, but they were also seemingly....less tangible. The tendrils somehow existed in the same way that a hole exists; not as the presence of something, but by an absence. "Forgive me," her smile gained emotion for all of a second - something alien, and predatory. Then it was gone. "I know you mean well, with your little tracers but....I just thought it best if no one from your organization was following me, until they've sorted out their problems in "upper management?."

The smile returned, but not predatory. Coy.

Blood Sister

Date: 2015-03-19 22:28 EST
Leta tilted her head to one side. It was like Lydia to have her nose in a book, and Leta could pass off Lydia's odd demeanor as due to the stress she had been going through at work lately, but this new power was a little more outside the box for the innocent schoolmarm. Leta was the one who craved power. Maybe Lydia had finally taken a page from Leta's book and sought some mystical power" Leta smiled, wondering. She turned her head back upright and said with a bit of a laugh, "That's probably true enough."

In truth, Leta had no idea what she was talking about. She hid her anger behind her smile. She hated when the higher ups in The Company didn't let her know what was going on. She may be one of their prized seers, but she couldn't see everything. Leta continued sweetly, trying to get information, "So, what all have you heard about it' I thought you tried to stay out of Company affairs."

"As if you didn't know; everyone has heard about the power struggle between the two new comers to the hierarchy - if they're really new comers. Some people suspect that they're really older powers that are masking their true presence by acting through intermediaries. Which is how I came by this," the book was closed and held in one hand while she reached down to her side, seemingly into the black substance that made up the chair she rested in. From within it she drew a slip of paper, and briefly scrutinized what was on it before extending her hand to her sister in offering.

"Someone came to me, no doubt thinking I was you, with promises of power," Lydia repressed a snort - either at the notion of the offer of power being hollow, or at the notion that it was offered to -her-. "He seemed to know a great deal about some derelict Company warehouse - Section 8, I believe he said?" Her look was a mask of innocence, as though she truly had no more information than what she was offering, "He made some remark," she paused, thinking, "About that one being the one which had a shabby upstairs....but the finish in the basement was quite lovely??

Dy Hauc

Date: 2015-03-19 23:52 EST
Leta had accepted the slip of paper slowly, only holding it with a thumb and pointer finger at first. She looked it over to see if it had any residual black inky tendrils on it.

She looked back to her twin, paying attention to this new information. At the mention of the warehouse, the smile fell from her face. She almost dropped the note, catching it quickly and awkwardly shoving it into her jeans side pocket. She left her hand in her pocket, trying to act calm, cool, and collected. She took a relaxed stance and said casually, "Oh, I don't know why he'd want to go there. Nothing's there of any note. That place was cleaned out long ago, but don't worry, I'll look into it. I'll make sure no one bothers you anymore."

Lydia frowned as soon as she saw Leta pocket the slip of paper. As she listened to her sister drone on in a useless cover up story, she stood, straightening out her charcoal skirt and white blouse. "You may as well dig that back out." The book was set upon the bizarre chair behind her as she reached for the buttons on her blouse and began to undo them. "You didn't even read the last line. He wants to meet you. Tonight. If I know you, and I think I do by now....you'll want to go 'incognito'. And since I'm already a 'known' factor to both this guy and your 'Company'..." she trailed off as deft fingers had undone the buttons half way down the blouse, while at the same time beginning to wriggle her hips as if to loosen her skirt. "Just switch clothes with me. Spare yourself the senseless running. I'll go back to the Coven to retrieve more of my own clothes when the house is better furnished." She hadn't even given Leta time to interrupt, and managed to interrupt her own silence when she glanced up and realized her twin hadn't moved yet. "Well? I have papers to grade, I'm trying to help you out but that doesn't mean I want to 'play' all night at this."

Blood Sister

Date: 2015-03-19 23:56 EST
Leta stared for a second, trying to wrap her head around a few things. At the forefront of her mind was the knowledge that this couldn't be Lydia. The identical twins shared more than the same indistinguishable features. They shared a unique bond that caused them to share scars, and even powers. Whenever Leta gained a new ability through her quests for more power, Lydia gained those abilities as well, though she refused to use them. Although, it wasn't quite impossible for Lydia to have gained a new power on her own, as evidenced by the unique chair. If this story about this man was true, he might have given her the power. It made more sense that the person before her was only using her sister's image. If it was a shape shifter, why wouldn't it just produce the clothes on its own body' Leta was trying not to focus on whether or not the clothes were new or actually Lydia's.

Leta did not like having her sister stalked in order for someone to learn her mannerisms, let alone have her things be stolen. No matter what or who this was before her, Leta was willing to "play' along herself until she could find out more. The best way to do that was to go along with the plan. She slipped off her tank top and handed it to her doppelganger. She did the same with her jeans, save for pulling the note from the jean pocket before handing it over.

Lydia, nonchalant, shimmied into Leta's clothes, seemingly engrossed in the task and giving Leta her space to do the same. After she'd finished, she reached down and picked up the book that lay upon the strange chair; to complicate matters, tendrils of the chairs substance seemed to cling to the book like a sticky resin when it was lifted.

Unperturbed and apparently having not noticed at all, Lydia began to turn the book over in her hands as her glance went to her sister; as the book was turned the substance of the chair began to ravel into it, like some sort of webbing. As the book was rotated over and over, the cover and spine showed clearly with platinum inlaid title, A History of Darkstar.

"Do you want me to wait up for you back at the Coven" I'll wait here and leave five minutes after you do; no one will think to follow "me", and if they stay around to follow "you?, they'll be in for a boring evening of watching the grounds of the Coven around Vampire House."

Dy Hauc

Date: 2015-03-20 00:03 EST
Leta worked her way into the skirt and blouse. They fit her perfectly, but they were psychologically uncomfortable for her. She hated the style her twin preferred. She took a quick glance at the note before slipping it into her bra, and then buttoned the blouse to the modest level Lydia favored. She didn't have much time. "No, no," she answered casually, "Don't worry about meeting up with me at the Coven. I'll catch up with you again soon enough." She meant that as a promise. Leta took a quick glance at the book. She would definitely be looking it up later. She headed towards the kitchen but turned back briefly while still in the doorway. Leta looked her in the eyes as she said, "Oh, and" sis" watch your back." She turned back and headed out the back door towards the meeting spot.

Lydia was completely unfazed by the somewhat dangerous undertone her 'sister' had taken. She wondered briefly as she looked down at herself, now in Leta's clothes, just how much her sister suspected; she knew the answer, or at least as much of the answer as was important right now: Not enough.

"You too," Lydia called after her just before the door closed, leaving her alone again in the house. Tucking the book under her arm, she reached into her pocket and withdrew a cell phone, and dialed. After three rings, someone picked up. "Yes, hi, it's Lydia-" she paused, a crooked smile forming on her face as she listened to the voice on the other end, "Yes, that's right....the history teacher. I was wondering, you'd mentioned getting together, maybe....I was hoping if you were in the area, you might escort me?" She listened again, tongue tracing her teeth as she smiled that same, almost predatory smile she'd given Leta. "That soon, hmm?"

Something in her tone made it questionable as to whether or not she was genuinely surprised. Certainly whoever she was talking to might think so, but not anyone that could see her face. "You're a true knight, sir." Her eyes became half lidded orbs as she felt her prey falling into her trap, "Want to know what I'll be wearing, at least?"

Pause.

"No, that is -not- how I meant that," fake exasperation, then a slow smile before giving the person on the other end an address. "Yes, of course I'll be walking. I'll see you soon. And yes, the same thing I was wearing in the classroom when we met, for the record. Alright. Talk to you soon."

The phone snapped shut and Lydia stretched, giving herself a shake as the clothing she wore became empowered by the glamour of the mage beneath them, altering them into a long, flowing black robe; she reached up then and took hold of her longest lock of hair, and began to pull it forward over her face - as it slowly coalesced into a black mask made of minute serpentine scales. "Yes, Lord Stormgaard. She'll see you soon. And so will I."

Blood Sister

Date: 2015-03-27 23:24 EST
Part II: Hurry and Wait

~~~

"Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance." - Oscar Wilde

~~~

RhyDin. In Transit.

Leta hurriedly walked down the dimly lit street. Her irritation was evident in each hard step on the sidewalk with Lydia's heels. Dressed as her twin, she was supposed to be meeting some man who had some information on an abandoned warehouse owned by The Company. Since it had been used for storage, The Company only awarded it a skeleton crew to guard the seemingly unimportant junk. The only catch was that Leta knew it was more than a simple storage locker now. She had been working out of it for quite some time using it as a place to store a few experiments she had wanted to keep away from The Company's prying eyes. Making sure that the skeleton crew remained under her command through her dominating abilities was an easy enough way to keep her affairs in order for quite some time. But somehow, she must have slipped up. Someone had found out. She heard about the man from Lydia or someone pretending to be her. If it was a shape shifter, it must have had kidnapped Lydia. Leta could faintly smell Lydia's perfume on the clothes she was wearing that she got from the impersonator. She had to draw the line somewhere - no one but her would impersonate her twin. Her best bet now was to play along with the plan until she could find out exactly what was going on.

"Mind if I tag along, Headmistress?" the voice came seemingly from out of nowhere; perhaps because he who cast it had just arrived, or because she had been too preoccupied to notice him. A small fire cast flickering shadows out onto the street, appearing as suddenly as had the voice. "You're walking like you're on a mission. Should slow down, you'll break a heel that way. In about 3 minutes, actually. On the shoes, that is.?

The figure of a man, somewhat stooped, rose from behind the glowing embers, hopped over them like a kingfisher to the sidewalk proper, and had the audacity to actually seem as though he would step directly in front of Leta....but stopped just short, not barring her path. He was neither young nor virile in appearance, rather, he was slightly kooky. Long, wild, white hair draped down from under a bowler hat whose style was completely out of place upon his otherwise medieval gear - which was exceptionally worn, but in good care. The goggles he lifted from his eyes to set upon the brim of the hat he wore did not help the matters much at all.

Tempus Fugit

Date: 2015-03-27 23:29 EST
Most people, seeing this apparent vagabond, would likely steer clear of him. But not all.

Even if everyone who did see him would think him just as at home wearing a religious billboard warning of the End Times. Just some old nut; except for the moment of almost unnerving lucidity that lurked, if only for a moment, in his eyes as he'd shifted the goggles to his hat.

Leta stopped when she heard the voice. She closed her eyes and sighed in exasperation as she heard the title of Headmistress.

"Of all the times?" She opened her eyes and smiled a closed lipped smile like Lydia as she turned to face the man. She gritted her teeth behind that smile. He dare he tell her that her heel would break"

She was a seer for The Company after all. She would know if she was about to break one of Lydia's stupid heels. She was about to walk passed the crazy old man, but she waited, fully realizing he called her the Headmistress. He must know Lydia, but how" He looked oddly familiar, or maybe just odd. Was he one of the people at the school" A kooky professor" A crazy rich philanthropist who gives to the school" Either way, she had to be polite on Lydia's behalf.

She finally spoke, her tone sweet, "Hello. Good evening." It was proper enough to be something Lydia would say, and it was generic enough to not have to address him.

The old man, as he was, tilted his head and regarded her with a most confused look. "Maybe you break it by trying to hit me with it or something..." His lips pursed and he raised a gnarled knuckled hand to massage his brow. As she hesitated in passing, his brow furrowed further as if he were deeply confused; mostly ignoring her, he began to trace numbers in the air before him, muttering as he began to do complex math in his head.

"Probably forgot to carry the 2....Always the damn 2..." He waved the pattern he was drawing away into nothing, as if wiping a blackboard clean. "So, where to, then?" He winked as he asked. It was -not- remotely subtle. "Seriously, I mean....I'm all for the plasticity of time and all, but, some of us -are- on a schedule here, and this is the night we do the thing down at the place....right?"

Blood Sister

Date: 2015-03-27 23:35 EST
Yeah, this was definitely some crackpot mathematician professor or something. She watched as he even hallucinated wiping away his math equation. No kidding she was on a schedule, but he was not a part of it. She was about to bid him goodnight, but she stood dumbstruck by his question. This was the night he and Lydia were supposed to do something" Oh, Leta hoped it wasn't supposed to be a date. Lydia had been out of the dating game for awhile, but this was just pathetic. Leta couldn't figure out which was worse, the apparent age difference or the insanity of this guy.

"No, no. It's probably a school thing," she thought. "Please be a school thing." But whether it was a date or work, Leta didn't have time for this. She was still a good four blocks away from the meeting point.

She said as politely as she could, "Oh, I'm sorry. I won't be able to make it to the?"thing" tonight. Something came up. You'll have to excuse me?" She then began to walk passed him. One of her heels hit the seam of two pieces of sidewalk, and got stuck. The force of her quick getaway step ripped the heel from the shoe, causing her to begin to loose her balance.

The man launched into a self triumphant tirade - if only for a moment - as her heel caught in the sidewalk, "HA! I told you s- I mean, here!" He'd reach an arm out to steady her, muttering as he did so, "Good thing I brought that extra pair of your heels in my bag; the calf high ones, black with the gold buckle..." his muttering dropped so low it was no longer decipherable, except for the occasional word here or there. "Sure," with a touch of sarcasm, "the Warehouse" with exasperation, and "realize its because I like the crazy ones", the last a somewhat rhetorical grumble.

He was making a rather unnecessary commotion, really; some would call it a scene. If anyone else could discern what was happening, that is. All around them, everything that moved, everything that was touched by entropy, had frozen. In their own little scene, their limited area of space, Time had momentarily stopped.

Waiting for life to catch up.

Tempus Fugit

Date: 2015-03-27 23:40 EST
Leta was heated now. She blamed him for her heel. She foresaw her killing him later, but she questioned if that was less her gift and more wishful thinking. She was calming herself; partially grateful for the catch and the backup shoes, but when he said they too were Lydia's, she became angry again at the thought of everyone taking her sister's things. Her anger faded as he mentioned the warehouse. How did he know she was on her way there" She was about to ask, but it was then she realized something was wrong around them. She was tired of being toyed with tonight.

She said bluntly as she grabbed the shoes from him, "What's going on?" She took a couple steps backwards, kicking her shoes off and bending her knees to put the new set of shoes on her feet behind her with each alternating step.

His eyes widened - but only momentarily - and his surprise was once again concealed. What minute movement there was going on around them at this hour resumed, lurching back to life. Not that it was very dramatic. Just little things, really, but they added up: The sound of the night, the sometimes flickering tongue of the wind across the skin. He'd been halfway into an explanation about the boots, rambling to himself, by the time she asked what was going on.

"Wasn't s'posed to given them to you, you see, for another four years or so. If I remember right, at least, and I think I do. And let me tell you....you, and just the boots, now that's a sight I can," her question, and the fact she noticed struck home; his response to her question came as eloquently and with as beautiful rhetoric as he could manage, sharp on the heels of her inquiry, "Huh?"

Leta's supernatural senses picked up on the subtle returning to normal time speeds but all of her senses, including her sixth, were not able to determine whatever he was rambling on about. She didn't really care right now since things were back to' as normal as things could get. Beginning to walk away from him and towards her original destination, she said, "Thank you for the shoes, but I really must go."

Blood Sister

Date: 2015-03-27 23:45 EST
"Mr...?" He seemed genuinely perplexed. Was she asking his name or stating that he was, in point of fact, a mister" He was looking directly at her, when his stare took on a slightly dreamy state as though he were looking more -through- her, at something one could only guess by his bizarre behavior was imagined. "A name! Right, I hadn't thought of that so....I dunno. Let's....why don't you just call me Solomon?" His eyes narrowed as he mouthed the word over again, silently to himself. "Yeah, Solomon Ages. That's a good, strong sounding name dontcha think?" He set off a few paces ahead of her, moving so quickly it was hard to even see him, when he again stopped suddenly and looked back at her.

"Seriously," he again paused and appeared to do some mental calculations, miming shuffling numbers around on a board by using his finger to draw patterns in the air, "We have this to see and people to do. No, the other way around. What I mean to say is - you left the door open to your rec room and if we don't go close it soon, someone you don't want in there is libel to wander in."

At the mention of the name, her eyes grew wide in an obvious panic. Solomon must have sent him. Solomon was her sire, her handler, and one of the Elder vampires of The Company. If Solomon knew something was going on at the warehouse, and that she was involved, it was all over. She didn't even care about the man she was supposed to meet a few blocks down who had information on the warehouse anymore. Her concern now was to get there first and try to salvage what she could of her unapproved projects. She could go with this "Ages" guy and hopefully loose him in some of the labyrinth hallways and storage rooms. Some of those crates were stacked up pretty high, after all. Any one of them could fall and crush someone. Her eyes softened into her normal calm and composed demeanor. She smiled lightly and spoke.

"Yes, that sounds perfect, Mr. " Ages." She began to follow him, wondering if she would be able to use her dominating mental tactics. Surely Solomon would not send someone she could so easily manipulate. It wouldn't stop her from trying though.

But not yet.

Her goal now was getting to one project in particular before it was too late.

~~~

"Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception." - Niccol" Machiavelli, "The Prince"

~~~

Lightfall

Date: 2015-04-14 01:01 EST
Part III: Original Imitation

~~~

"Silence is a source of great strength" - Lao Tzu

~~~

Warehouse District. Company Property, Building 8-H.

To most passers by, it would seem to be a run down, derelict shipping warehouse - and that's exactly what the proprietors would want you to think; most of the man sized doors were gone, replaced with plywood, as were the windows of the first floor; the second story windows were long broken out and now only the tattered remains of fallen insulation partly obstructed the view into their yawning dark remains. It appeared to be by far the worst off out of the many contemporary structures that surrounded it. The cost of demolition alone would be prohibitive to others seeking to purchase it for development.

To those that knew where to look, however, the reality of the site was impressive; beneath the part which people could easily see lay at least 5 sublevels of basements, which increased in level of technology, secrecy, and security as one descended. And all that really separated it from the outside world was a huge metal plate which covered the staircase below; a plate so large no human could move it by themselves, and which was meant to be lifted by a crane suspended in the steel beams overhead. All someone would need to do was plug the crane controls into their port, attach the hook to the plate, and a simple press of a button would reveal everything. And obviously, someone must have been trying to learn how to do just that. For the past several weeks, the warehouse had been the site of several attempted break ins - though for obvious reasons the local authorities were hard pressed to determine motive besides juvenile delinquency or someone looking to squat there.

But not even the local cops on the Company payroll would realize the sites value, so to take care of problems like this....they called in a Cleaner.

Layla hated these types of missions. The Company could have sent any lackey into this. In fact, she was going to have Stephen, her primary ?go-to guy' go on her behalf, but The Company demanded she go. She didn't need to be there though. It seemed like a pretty cut and dry case. Someone was in the lower storage levels, rifling around, probably looking for stuff to steal.

The joke was on them though because this was one of the storage warehouses that housed all those things The Company didn't care about. There were no real riches, nothing of power. But The Company wasn't one to throw things out. It kept everything, every piece of junk, and that's where she was headed. She showed her authorization tag to a couple guards there, who opened the plated entrance to allow her inside.

Layla

Date: 2015-04-14 01:04 EST
Like all of her missions, Layla only knew what she had to in order to complete her job. She walked down the corridor to the elevators, recalling the information she was given. Someone had apparently broken in, leaving some areas in some disarray, but the cameras caught nothing and there was no evidence of a break in. After that, the cameras were enhanced and they would occasionally catch glimpses of things. She knew or a variety of different tactics like bending air and using shadows and illusions to mask oneself, so that wasn't too much of a concern for her. She pushed the elevator button. The issue was, every time, the exterior never showed signs of anyone breaking in or lock tampering. She assumed it was just an inside job. She got out on her floor and started her trek down the hallway to wear the incidents would happen. It was dark;

The Company didn't need to fund much for lighting on its scrap storage. Normally, she would have liked to go with a bodyguard, not that she was allowed one this time, but she had been practicing her hand to hand combat and weapon wielding. She didn't quite excel at either like she thought she did, but it was enough to give her a false self confidence.

The situation in question found its origin far below street level, past the point where the sub levels were numbered, and were instead known by project name designations. Project Level Primus, the twenty seventh sub level, was one of many Project Levels that were exploring alternate and parallel realities and their infiltration through use of cloning technology. Like the six sub levels that preceded it, it was focused on a particular world and held a veritable trove of artifacts from that world; including some biological specimens preserved and kept alive in free standing cylindrical vats which dominated half of the level. The remainder was lock-box storage, digital information banks, and several pieces of cloning apparatus. This was the level which someone had ultimately gotten to; whatever it was having had to change elevators twice, at the nineteenth and ninth sub levels - each one of those a security system unto itself, capable of repelling most would be intruders without the appropriate level of clearance; clearing those floors after being able to innocuously slip past the few beings who were legitimately working 'above board' for the Company between the first and ninth sublevel, and that only after determining how to enter the basements in the first place. Ergo, whatever had found its way to the bottom had initially had to have been where Layla stood....now.

Lightfall

Date: 2015-04-14 01:13 EST
Unbidden, lights flickered on feebly overhead and - only for a moment - a dark haired man seemed to be standing over top of the plate barring entrance to the basement. And he was staring directly at her. Layla paused for a moment. This man could have probably been one of the few guards she had passed outside on her way into the ground level. It would make sense since he was standing over the entryway to the first set of sublevels. She only hesitated because, aside from the fact that anyone she encountered could potentially be the perpetrator who supposedly broke in, any of the guards could also be an inside man who was trying to get to something he shouldn't. She began walking towards the man, really towards the basement plate, in a mildly defensive posture. She could quickly reach into her leather jacket to pull out her handgun on one side of her, or her small blade along her lower back with the other hand.

She wore her typical Cleaner attire. She wore all black from her thick running boots, to her combat pants with plenty of pockets for small tools and gear, to her light armored shirt and loose leather jacket. Even her long black hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail to keep her hair out of her face. Only her pale face was the only skin showing, since she even wore thin black gloves. She carried her clearance card in one of her gloved hands, just enough so he could see it if it should be an issue to him.

As she turned her complete attention on him, the man's form became wispy and appeared more insubstantial than not. He did; however, seem to smile - though it was blurred and distorted - as he turned from her and began to sink into the floor; bypassing that particular security feature by completely phasing through the plate. The closer she drew, the more he disappeared below - until she was close enough that she drew up beside the crane control wand which dangled on its long cord from the ceiling overhead; the control panel began to swing as if pushed by a gentle breeze....if a gentle breeze were capable of pushing something both back -and- forth, as if from hand to hand. The movement startled a small flock of pigeons roosting overhead, and the otherwise large silent chamber was instantly filled with the flap of panicked wing beats.

Layla

Date: 2015-04-14 01:16 EST
Layla sighed, more aggravated than scared by the sight. She figured now she'd be dealing with some thief that has some high tech phasing belt or some magic user trying out a new insubstantial talisman necklace, and the jerk had to even smile at her and wave the controls, taunting her, like if she didn't know how to get in. She walked up and hastily grabbed at the controls, pushing the buttons to allow her to move the plate, while mumbling to herself, "" stupid idiot " belt thing is probably more powerful than all of the junk in here put together"?

The crane's apparatus began to roll along the beams overhead, hook chain dropping down over the steel plate, swinging slowly back and forth before appearing to guide itself into the eye-hole for the hook - something it was not enchanted or otherwise augmented to do on its own. A humanoid figure appeared beside and behind her, just within her peripheral vision; blurry as the last one had been, and looking much the same for the brief moment that it showed itself. It seemed to be intent on leaning closer, as if....smelling her. Certainly the entire chamber, completely dormant most of the time, was suddenly and completely inundated with the clank and groan of equipment - and visions which substance was definitely within question.

Layla took a step to the side when she thought she saw him again out of the corner of her eye. She questioned if she even saw him; this was a creepy enough place. She shook her shoulders, as if trying to shake him off of her, and then sniffed calmly, just playing it off as she was just shifting her stance. She pushed the buttons harder, pretending it would move faster and let her on her way. The quicker she could get in and do her evaluations of the place, the quicker she could get out. She didn't think anything of the hook being guided. Even if she knew how it was or wasn't supposed to work, she was more focused on trying not to let the disturbing environment get to her.

The apparition seemed to vanish again - perhaps dismayed by her ignoring its presence. Soon, the pigeons again settled, and the crane stopped rolling along the beams and simply creaked and groaned as it lifted the plate free from covering the stairwell entrance to the first sub-level floor.

Lightfall

Date: 2015-04-15 21:22 EST
As it lifted free, a muffled voice - which became clearer as the doorway cleared - called up to her from the stairwell below.

"All I can see is legs, but so far they look like they've got a hot piece of?" he said something else, but coughed at the same time so that it was mumbled, then continued, ""connected to them; that'd be a treat, I hate workin' this crap shoot beat alone..."

The figure standing in the stairwell was burly and to most people imposing, denim jeans and a black leather jacket on over a tight white undershirt; he carried a berretta 9mm on his hip and a sword over his shoulder - though it was more a sharp, wide piece of metal with a handle on it than a true sword. A crude mockery of one for a crude appearing man, it might seem.

"C'mon down, legs." Finally his face came into view as the plate cleared completely, pock marked with black wraparound sunglasses matching his short cropped, product filled hair. Close behind him, and apparently being ignored by the newcomer as well, the apparition flitted about, appearing and disappearing quickly, its image blurry and indistinct....and scowling angrily.

Layla rolled her eyes at the comment before going down the stairs. As much as the words irritated her, she felt better hearing another person nearby. She knew she could take on a man over some ghost with her own real sword any night. As she came down the stairs, she thought she kept seeing the figure blurring in and out. As long as it wasn't doing anything to inhibit her from looking around enough to complete her job, she didn't care.

Besides, right now, the creepy thing she was questioning the most was " Is this strange guard down here just talking to himself" She guessed he must have been "working this beat' alone for a little too long.

"Cold iron or silver?" the man up nodded towards the blade she carried, "A little bit of both would be ideal. For a start. You're lucky we were notified ahead of your arrival, anyone else trying to step foot down here," he trailed off, with a dramatic drawn out whistle - the kind you hear when someone in a cartoon falls off a ledge - and the side of his mouth curled upward in a slightly condescending sneer.

"For the record, I don't think they really needed to send in a 'specialist' for this case, its a two bit spook - that's all. Bring me a bag of rock salt and we'll take care of him in about twenty minutes. Then maybe you and me can go somewhere and compare....weapons."

Layla

Date: 2015-04-15 21:44 EST
He spoke quickly, giving her no time to respond to one thing before running into another, relying on that to keep him from losing his head - literally - while still putting the moves on her, as it were. He liked tough women, or rather, women who thought they were tough; the kind of woman who wasn't afraid to smack him around, because that made him feel more even about smacking them around.

Layla wanted to answer his "cold iron or silver" question by pulling either out and ramming it down his throat to get him to stop speaking. Instead, she took a breath. She was aggravated and already on edge in this place. She didn't need him to add to it. Looking around, she said tersely, "Much like how I imagine you work, I'm just here to get in and out." She glared at him and said, "Just take me where I need to go. What you do after in your own time is between you and? you."

He shot her a cooled glance, his lips pursed. His response was infuriating, perhaps, in that his confidence was seemingly unaffected by her remark. "Maybe, but at least I wouldn't waste a lot of your time." Of all things, he winked - and it was just as sleazy as his remarks had been. "They call this 'the Neck', its like a foyer - or whatever you call them," his pronunciation of 'foyer' was made with a forced accent, completely out of place with his common demeanor - and thus only adding to his air of ridiculousness; it was no surprise why the Company kept him working in solitude.

"Under us, we got two divisions of sub levels, each with their own set of elevators; five primary sub levels, and who knows how many secondary sub levels. I got a key card for the primaries, beyond that, I don't have access. I keep telling them if they want the bottom levels secure, I gotta get down there, they tell me if the top five are secure it shouldn't be a problem," he was beginning to sound exasperated.

"Anyways, thing is, we got one incursion in the Archives - the first primary sub, and one down in the secondaries as well. So," as he spoke, he'd started walking ahead of her down the stairs, beckoning for her to follow. And either she'd follow, or be left behind, because he was totally rapt by the sound of his own voice - finally able to talk to someone, anyone, that couldn't just walk away.

Lightfall

Date: 2015-04-15 21:55 EST
"What's your play?" They hadn't really moved far, perhaps a fifty or seventy five feet, into a circular chamber with a set of elevators set in the wall, faced in opposition of one another.

Layla let her eyes wander around as he led her. She was equally focused on the doors and any identifying labels anywhere. She was more curious about what they had down here and why they would be special enough for someone to try to break in to get them. She had assumed most of it was junk since it was supposed to be a mostly abandoned storage center, but the layout of the place indicated that the stuff was definitely worth protecting.

"My play?" she asked, almost repeating back, barely paying attention as he mumbled his own interjections that weren't relevant to her cause.

"Your plan, Legs. You got lower access, or, we just checking out the archives....or maybe you really are sweet on me and just wanna pass some time gettin' to know each other right here." He smiled as he turned to face her, arms crossed over his chest. Both elevators were clearly marked along the top 'SL 1-5'. "Tryin' to tell you I don't got access - or a Guardian pass - for the lower levels. You're the specialist, I'm just the night shift." His tone implied that perhaps he felt the roles weren't remotely just, and perhaps they should, in fact, be reversed.

She stared at him for a moment. She didn't have a pass for any of the levels. She would never let him know that, though. Keeping up appearances.

"Take me to the Archives first," she said harshly, "Once I'm finished there, you don't have to worry about how I get down to the lower levels." She paused and then continued with emphasis, just because of his obvious disdain for their roles, "That's why I'm the specialist." She stared at him with conviction.

Oh, how she hated being in over her head from the beginning of a mission. All too often she was sent in with no plan. If she could just work things out by the end, it would seem like all her work was well calculated. That's how it worked out in her head, anyway. She had a feeling that this time was not going to end well.

Layla

Date: 2015-04-15 21:59 EST
"Alright, Archives level, this way..." he moved towards one of the elevator doors, talking to her over his shoulder. "Just be sure when the Guardian appears to stay behind me. It won't attack me with my pass on. That should pretty much let you do....whatever it is you need to do, then we just walk out." He muttered, "Not that I suspect a bird like you minds using someone for a human shield." The elevator doors slid open and he stepped inside. Along with the normal gamut of buttons, there were two distinct access slots for security cards: 'SL 1-5', and 'Special Projects'.

"So here we got your basic setup," he'd turned now, waited for her to enter the elevator, and applied his key card in the appropriate slot. "Each levels got its own Guardian protocol, the incursion was on SL-5." He stepped back slightly from the control console, allowing her access.

As he walked in front of her and spoke over his shoulder, she used the opportunity to steal an amused smile over his 'bird' comment. She followed him inside the elevator and took detailed mental notes as he explained things.

"Archive Sub Level 5, here we come..." He keyed the buttons for their destination, and glanced at her again over his shoulder, his shades having slid down the bridge of his nose. "Hold on to your..." he eyed her chest with a grin before glancing back to her face. As he turned away to face the doors again, the level indicator began to cycle through floors - and Mr. Roboto began to play in elevator music style format. A few bars in, he glanced at her again, "Hey, I don't pick the music, Legs, I just work here, so don't look at-" the music stopped and the elevator dinged loudly as the doors slid open revealing a large, somewhat typical storage area.

Long shelves, near twenty feet high, lined a room hundreds of yards both long and wide. Each level of shelving was independently lit, as well as typical industrial lighting overhead. What was not typical, overhead, was an ominously glowing black sphere. As the doors opened and they stepped out, it pulsed twice and went dull. The guard narrowed his eyes as he watched it, and muttered.

"Huh. It's never done that before," his expression was slightly dull and mystified as he looked to her, "So, uh. Right. The incursion site. This way, Legs." And he whistled, one drawn out note, as if he were calling her.

Lightfall

Date: 2015-04-15 22:10 EST
Between his comments and the song, she just couldn't take it anymore. She closed her eyes and brought up one hand up to hold the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger in a light version of a face palm. She brought her other hand up and crossed it over her to support her other arm as she shook her head.

Her eyes were still closed as the elevator doors opened. As she opened them, she dropped her arms, and watched the glowing orb. He didn't seem too startled by it, no matter how it was acting, so she decided not to pay it too much mind either.

She did mind the whistle though.

She wondered what would happen if she accidentally pushed him into the sphere. Maybe it was like a black hole" No, she needed him. She had little access now, but even less without him, so he was useful enough to keep around.

She reluctantly followed.

"He should be getting here anytime now, he's quicker than I am. It's over this way," he walked quickly, firearm drawn, and fingers constantly readjusting on the grip. He smirked in spite of himself when he noticed he was doing it, "Not that that'll do much good..." he muttered. "I hate Primus levels." He finally stopped and looked up, nodding towards a specific spot about ten feet up. "Somewhere up there. You'll have to use the lift. You want me up there, or down here?"

"He"" Was he talking about the guardian on this level, or the intruder" She assumed the guardian was the black orb floating above them. What was "Primus" and why where those floors so bad" She certainly didn't want to ask too many questions. Questions made it clear that one didn't know, and she always wanted to give the appearance that she knew everything. It was easier to act in-control that way. She wasn't winging this very well.

She didn't know where to tell him to go, other than to hell, but that wouldn't help matters.

"I will go up. You will stay below.? she directed. She sure her blade was loose enough to pull quickly, but pulled out her gun. She may have been practicing more with her blade recently to expand on her skills, but she always felt more comfortable with her gun.

Layla

Date: 2015-04-19 13:55 EST
Layla pulled out the piece of paper in her pocket with the identification code on it. She looked around where he pointed. She nodded in confirmation that what she was looking for should be in that area as she placed it back in her pocket. She looked over and saw the lift attached to the back of a small riding cart. She got in and drove it under where she needed it to be. She got out and climbed through the wrap around railing surrounding the scissor lift. She pushed the button indicating up and held onto the railing with one hand as she held her gun with the other. She stopped when she got to the place she expected it to be located.

The guard paced nervously as she went through the motions. He was agitated by anything not typical in this place; in this place, atypical things were generally lethal threats. Something about the pulses had set him off. "He's here." He intoned loudly from the ground underneath the scissor lift Layla was now in. Down the corridor between shelves strode a figure; its height and build matched the guard perfectly, as did the nature of its attire. The most startling difference, was its color; it was a complete negative of the guard himself. It moved silently towards them without making a sound, its attention focused on Layla entirely as it drew a shadow negative version of the guards gun on her....and the guard threw himself in front of it.

"Anytime now, Legs..." and the negative began to mimic the guards actions, including its mouth moving when the guard spoke - although no sound came from it.

Her attention shifted to the guard as he spoke. She watched his doppelganger in awe for a moment, before fully allowing his words to make their impact. Once they did, her hurried attention turned back to her work. She found the tote, but it was too large to grab one handed. She shoved her gun back into its holster, grabbed the tote, and dropped it down on the lift with her. She pushed the down button, internally arguing with the machine to drop faster. Once it lowered close enough to the ground for her to feel as though she could fall to the floor without hurting herself or dropping the tote, she picked up the tote and jumped over the side of the railing. She ran to catch up to the guard.

Lightfall

Date: 2015-04-19 14:02 EST
"Hurry up and get that to the elevator Legs. Just keep me between you and it," she wasn't able to see his expression or gestures, but they were all readily apparent on the face of his mimic. Including one of sudden shock. "Oh. That's why there were two. Legs. Run." A sword, identical in every way to Layla's exited the guards back in a spray of blood towards Layla, and he slid forward onto it, leaving his killer looking directly over his shoulder at Layla: it was a mimic of her.

Layla watched the woman who looked like herself just long enough to realize the potential complications in this situation. She might have been able to take on the double of him, but one of herself seemed impossible. She regretted the progress she had made with her recent blade training, as she looked passed her mimic to the elevator. She knew full well she needed the tote and probably everything in it, she was trying to figure out a plan.

While she needed to carry the tote with both hands, their mimics were at a great advantage with his gun and her gun and sword. Layla found herself taking slow steps backwards while she was thinking. She might be able to use the rows of storage shelves to her advantage, making her way in seemingly random paths, distracting them and misleading them. She just needed to get to the elevator. She took a sharp turn down one of the rows, running at full speed, hoping she could out think herself.

The guards mimic quickly fell away behind her, out of sight; her own mimic was a different story altogether. As quickly as she ran, the mimic followed, having quickly nudged the victim of her blade to the side and leaped over his dying form.

Any indication of what lay behind her, without her turning to look back, was veiled, however. The tote in her arms jostled back and forth with each powerful stride; blades knocked against the sides of the tote, partially slipping from their sheaths and back in, buttons or badges scratched the bottom of the container, and colored refractions of light onto Layla's face as she ran.

Layla

Date: 2015-04-19 14:10 EST
Eventually, all the knocking about managed to roll Kaiden's first music device to the surface of the tote, partially covered in an inner cloak liner; it was a hodge podge thing, not seen on any store shelves, cobbled together from pieces of previous machines which must have broken, and held together by soldering on the inside, and a back plate reinforced with duct tape. As it fell from its front to its back, it's screen was exposed and it suddenly flickered to life, bizarre arrangements of characters filling the faceplate in no apparent order before jumping suddenly to a song which began to play.

The ear buds to the device were gone, being the only thing he'd salvaged to take with him while using his later player, and the music blasted directly from the speakers - although at a barely audible level due to their small size. The lyrics, however, were clear to vampiric ears as the first few words of Total Eclipse of the Heart, "Turn around, every now and then..." the music skipped, "Turn around, every now and then..." the music skipped again, and kept repeating over and over as she ran.

In enough of a frantic, the music began to fall on deaf ears. It took several loops for her to understand the music was playing in her arms, but even then she did not listen to its words. Forced to focus only because of her aggravation by the repetition of sound, she finally listened. That was impossible; wasn't it' Chance would have it looping a random line. It was just a faulty Frankenstein of a machine; it surely couldn't actually be helping her. Either way, it was good advice, once she allowed herself to be able to take the suggestion. Still running, though at a slower pace due to her position, she turned her upper body slightly to study herself.

After she turned, the device immediately skipped to the next song. It then began to loop, "drop it like it's hot". She instantly made the realization that the song changed. 'It could have been coincidence', she told herself. She was holding the tote off center now that she turned to look back, so she could have jarred the machine, causing it to skip tracks. She instead realized she was missing the message as it continued, "drop it like it's hot". It wanted her to drop her tote"

((Songs: "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler and "Drop It Like It's Hot" by Snoop Dogg))

Lightfall

Date: 2015-04-23 15:46 EST
And then do what? Fight herself"

No, that was idiocy.

She wouldn't be able to take herself on and win. She was lucky she got through the fights that she fought with other people. Her bravado got her through most situations, but this time, she was literally fighting herself and she knew herself better than' Maybe it would work.

"Oh, this is a bad idea?, she thought as she came to a full stop. She turned around completely, setting the tote down. As she did, the two blades slipped from their sheaths again. It caught her attention. It meant she now had different weapons than her counterparts. At least she hoped it meant that. If so, she had a fighting chance. She grabbed one in each hand, and raced towards....herself.

As soon as the second sword was in her hand, however, a second sword also appeared in the hand of her duplicate; everything she did, it seemed the mimic would do - and could do. That was the true, dark genius of the defensive system of this level: anything an intruder did would be matched, perfectly. They would be unable to escape the mimic, and unable to kill it, if one followed reason: any killing blow against the mimic....would be a killing blow the mimic delivered in return. That still ignored the threat posed by the other mimic who was, at the very least, out of sight for the moment. In the midst of the sudden face off, the music from the player died away suddenly, and the lights overhead seemed to increase in intensity, their glow taking on an almost fiery, golden hue.

Further down the hallway, adjoining the spot she'd turned, the other mimic came slowly walking forward - one arm trailing behind it, holding the foot of the security guard that had originally escorted her into the warehouse. A long, messy, streak of blood stretched into the distance behind them; the man might not have been dead, but if not he was dying quickly.

The light from above intensified, and some of the bulbs began to explode, showering ground with hot, sharp, shards of glass, and the rest of the action began to unravel like falling dominoes: the exploding bulbs above blinked out in a pattern - leaving a trail of lighted ones that zig zagged through the tiers of shelves, but lead eventually, ever on towards the elevators; simultaneously, the golden lights reflection seemed more than just reflected in the blade that she had gathered from the tote, it seemed as if the glow infused the blade itself and shone from within - if only for a moment.

Layla

Date: 2015-04-24 21:27 EST
Unbidden by Layla, the tip of the blade seemed to pull itself into a horizontal posture - pulling her arm along behind it at a speed even she was unused to - and quickly flickering out, meeting the blades of her mimic at a perpendicular angle and severing them cleanly, as if they'd been made of cardboard, mere inches above their hilts. Now any movement that the mimic copied would be identical - but its strikes would fall short of Layla's. As soon as the glow had begun, and flared out again, the music again to play. AC/DC's "Back in Black".

Layla came to a complete stop again as she saw the second sword extend from her mimic's hand. Her false confidence got the better of her once again. She didn't know what to do. Luckily, she didn't need to do anything. She watched as her blade took on a life of its own to cut down her opponent's blades. Having an advantage in reach, she took the opportunity. As she pierced her sword through her mimic, she questioned the possible side effects to herself. Breathing a sigh of relief, she felt more comfortable with her decision as she watched as her doppelganger collapsed into a puddle of darkness and retreated towards the center of the massive room. Standing there, being able to breath without the constant threat, she was able to take a better assessment of the situation.

The dying guard being pulled by his imitator.

The lighted path that had led towards her escape route to the elevator. The tote she left a short distance behind her. All the loose ends she needed to take care of. She transferred both blades into one hand and pulled out her gun, aiming it towards the mirrored men.

With one shot, she hit her target. The security guard breathed his last breath. Without his life inspiration to ground him, his mimic also melted and flowed towards the center of the room. Layla walked back to the tote and placed the blades inside. Picking it up with both hands once more, she began to walk towards the elevator. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see as something appeared to stand in the center of the room. She stopped to watch as the flowing trait of darkness oozed into one being, another mimic of herself. She didn't defeat it; she only reset it. No, this time, she was out of there. She bolted towards the elevator and didn't stop until she was inside.

She dropped the tote and inserted her keycard, then punched in the destination; she refused to focus on her mimic that was gaining ground towards her. Layla breathed as the elevators doors finally closed just before the mimic made its way to the elevator.

((Song: "Back in Black" by AC/DC))

Tempus Fugit

Date: 2015-07-23 21:50 EST
Part IV: If I Were Me

~~~

"You have this idea that you'd better keep working otherwise people will forget. And that was dangerous. And then you realize, no, actually if you take a break people might be more interested in you." - Robin Williams ~~~

Warehouse District. Company Property, Building 8-H.

The warehouse showed no signs of life as they approached it, which was just as well since it was supposed to give the appearance of being abandoned, even though it wasn't. All the doors and switches that had been operated since the last ones to go down had self sealed, and returned to their normal, neutral state. The one anomaly that really stood out between the arrival of Leta & Solomon to the scene, versus that of Layla much earlier, was a man.

Unnoticed by Solomon, apparently, who had probably annoyed Leta much of the journey there by continually assuming that she was her sister, and speaking much of personal history, continuity, and our roles in the universe at large. To be frank, much of what the man said sounded like complete babble, and he had a habit of breaking from the middle of one story right into the end - or beginning - of another. Without ever finishing the first. Despite appearing much older than her he had also, annoyingly, easily kept pace with her, no matter what speed she set. Suffice to say, he did not notice the anomalous new fellow, at least right away.

The new fellow had an ageless look to him, both youthful and mature. That maturity in no way seemed to make its presence known through his current demeanor, as he sat upon the plate which covered the door to the lower levels, idly tossing an apple into the air and taking a loud, crunching bite out of it after catching it again. He made no attempt to move as he in turn saw them enter, he merely stretched out and crossed his ankles - the movement making visible the sheath of a rather large sword which lay beside him.

Without appearing to really take notice of them, he spoke, "S"up legs?" the apple crunched, "Ditch the old timer, I don't think you're really his type.?

Blood Sister

Date: 2015-07-23 21:57 EST
Leta did not like the fact of showing up to her warehouse in Lydia's attire, but the person she was supposed to meet there would be looking for her twin sister. Leta only agreed to meet the man because he seemed to know too much about the warehouse. The Company used the old warehouse in district eight as a storage area, but its defenses were set to automatic and it was essentially abandoned, save for a skeleton crew. Leta kept a heavy hand on the security guards there, brain washing them as needed, so that she could use the area in piece.

Now there was a threat and she was going to meet him. She ran into Ages on the way and he claimed to have the name Solomon. Her sire and boss at The Company was Solomon. She didn't know anything about this old man, but she knew she should keep him close. She kept on the defensive as she saw the second man. She recognized him, and stopped. Her eyes widened, not believing he could be here now. Was he the one that went to Lydia" Lydia wouldn't have recognized him; she would have had no idea. He was certainly a trickster, but why would he be involved in Company business"

After his comment, she glared at him. "You never had any idea what my type is."

Solomon kept his gaze fixed on Leta, totally ignoring the younger fellow. Which seemed to suit just about everyone, as the fellow pushed himself up off the floor and dusted his pants off, taking one last bite of the apple and throwing it absently over his shoulder.

"Now that's a bit unfair, don't you think" I'm a lot wiser than I used to be. A lot more powerful, too." His demeanor was completely casual, neither threatening nor appearing to be threatened by her - even if he evidently knew exactly what she was. "Your sister would like me, still. So would you. And this guy," nodding to Solomon, "Is really no good for you. Take a deep breath. Smell that' He's not even human. Kind of coincidental, him "showing up" and following you here. Wasn't it."

The younger man - Brend - stooped and retrieved his blade, fastening it over his shoulder. "Lose him, let's go."

Solomon had said nothing the entire time, simply watching Leta's responses, before finally voicing a one word question, "Lydia?"

Tempus Fugit

Date: 2015-07-23 22:04 EST
When he tried tempting her with power, she responded with only a wave of her hand, in a "been there, did that' manner. But he was making a good point about this Ages guy. Was he the one who talked to Lydia to draw her out' It was incredibly hard to shake him, and he came prepared when her heel broke all of a sudden. She had been ignoring him this whole time as he rambled on, but he gained her attention as he called her name.

She snapped back to face Ages and said aggressively, "Look, why are you even here?" If he was trying to follow along so she would take him down and see everything she had worked on to report back to The Company, she wouldn't go down without a fight. Even worse, if he was a Company rival, maybe he was there to steal their old storage items. That would mean something they had been keeping there wasn't as worthless as they thought. If that was true, she was hell-bent on finding it before he could.

"What am I, here for" Mostly for your sister, since you're largely ungrateful." The elder gentleman's eyebrows furrowed, "What you should be asking yourself, is, what is that I here for." He gestured to Brend, who'd stooped to quickly snatch his sheathed weapon from the ground.

"Hey," Brend retorted quickly, "I think it's fair to say we all have an invested interest in what?s going on down there, now don't we." He was smarmy in that "makes you want to kill him' way that Brend was; his mouth curled on one side into a tight, smug smile, his resounding tone all but saying he'd stated the obvious - but to stupid people.

Age's cryptic gaze slid from Leta, to Brend, and back again. "It seems we're at an impasse; there's three of us here, but there's only two tickets for the scenic tour of the basement. And," his gaze flickered again to Brend, specifically to the sword now in his hands. "You, or I, or you..." his eyes narrowed dangerously, but because of the frailty that must accompany his age, it was halfway comical, "Don't call her "Legs". If you're going to try to take me, try to be the best me you can be.?

The corner of Age's mouth turned into the same tight, smug, smile that Brend's had.

Blood Sister

Date: 2015-07-23 22:12 EST
Leta stared at Ages long after he finished addressing her. The Brend she knew was a man of time. She figured it wasn't far fetched for him to be able to accelerate his own aging and appear as the old man before her. The addition of the Brend with them certainly complicated things. She took special note of one aspect, though. Ages wasn't here for her, he was here for Lydia. Either Ages was the imposter and using knowledge of her sister against her, or he was the true Brend. Ages did defend her against the other, as well.

The Brend she knew certainly did not care as much about legs as he did another feature, but she would need to observe them both before making her final decision. For now, she wouldn't trust either of them. She thought it best to speak as little as possible, in case she gave them answers to use against her, to manipulate her. It would be best to let them banter until she could figure this out. This one time in her life, she wished she was Lydia. Lydia probably would have instantly known Brend, or at least she would have, before Leta washed him from her memory. Leta was kicking herself now.

"I wish one of you would say something." Both men declared in unison, both their eyes on her.

"He thought you were your sister, you know," Brend started in again, almost smirking at Ages. "He was waiting to take advantage of her good nature, that's why he chose to take that form," he up-nodded towards Ages. "C"mon Le, step away from him. Just give me enough room for my blade, and we'll hit the sub basement; you might not like me, but better the devil you know, as they say..."

Ages interrupted, "He's not what he looks like, Leta. And your indecision is only making him stronger; your doubt and fears are feeding him, you need to..."

Brend interjected again, "To get away from him. He's a Surrogate, a facsimile someone Lydi must know - look at him! You'd never suspect that! That old fool, of being anything other than an old fool, would you?" Brend's blade was clear of its scabbard now, which was tossed to the ground.

Leta's attention turned to the younger man as both spoke. He had one thing Ages didn't, Brend's sword. It was one of his few favorite possessions, aside from his boots. Leta often made fun of Lydia's taste in Brend, questioning the manliness of someone obsessed with shoes. The young one was right, she never liked Brend. He was annoying playful, he was too pacifistic for her tastes, and he was just too nice.

Tempus Fugit

Date: 2015-07-26 09:33 EST
"Ok, Brend," she said to the younger man while starting to walk towards him to go down into the sub basements. While she walked, she looked over her shoulder and replied back to Ages, "You know, you could have at least tried a better disguise. And giving me a pair of my sister's shoes when mine broke" Come on. What kind of guy even thinks about shoes?" Having her head turned, she gave him a wink that was shielded by the younger's view. She turned back, and continued walking towards the Brend she accepted.

For a brief instant, the roil of energies that surrounded them became visible to Leta; the essences of creation and oblivion were disrupting chronotons in a sphere all around them, throwing perception of what was really there askew. Brend vanished. In his place was someone else - something else. A black death shroud, dark enough to drink the light itself, hanged in the air where Brend had stood. The head was bare, hairless, and pseudo mummified - long dead, to say the least. For a brief moment, that image too seemed to blur into something else before solidifying again, revealing that it too was some type of illusion - or some other effect which was altering her senses. The figure raised its arm, in mimicry of what "Brend? would have done.

Then what was happening fast, changed pace again, and events flew by. Ages sprang forward, bizarrely spry for a man of his advanced years; and although the dark figure was inhumanly fast, even for someone operating at vampiric speeds, Ages possessed an almost uncanny knack for feinting, making it appear as though he were going to move into reach, only to duck, dodge, and shimmy away - as though he knew where the strikes would fall.

The control mechanism for the sub level door was suddenly swinging wildly from its tether above, as if whipped by wild winds; the door was already sliding open as Ages slid past Leta, his arm encircling her waist as he went - the sheer momentum able to carry her. There were no time for words, ironically, they wouldn't be heard moving as they were anyway. The two of them all but slid into the semi open doorway in the ground, just as the portal began to close again as Ages looked up and focused on the narrowing gap.

Blood Sister

Date: 2015-07-26 09:40 EST
Outside the gate, everything seemed to be very, very, slow. The shrouded figure hadn't moved. Ages took a deep breath and time once more fell into complete sync. "The wards on the door should keep him out, I'd think. You had the Arcanists burn wardings right into the....ah, never mind, what gave me away' Or....him away, I should say?"

She thought carefully before she answered. She recalled him saying he was there for Lydia and started to say, "Because through all of time, there has been one truth " You love my sister." Instead she made her snide remark. "It was your odor," she said while pushing his arm off of her waist and taking a step away from him, silently grateful for his aid.

Classic Leta.

She'd failed to take note of the fact that the only reason he gave for not saying he was there for -her- was because she was ungrateful. It didn't mean, however, that he was there for -her- any less. He leaned down and brushed the dust from his boots, and when he stood again he was taller. Less stooped. "Ah, yeah. Sorry. Onions. You're lucky it wasn't garlic. You still have that allergy?" He made small talk while plucking at a nondescript satchel hanging at his side; he opened it and reached in, and began to draw a sword from within. Wind and flashes of lightning, the sounds of a storm, seemed to emanate with a dull roar from within - until the blade was completely freed, and he closed it again. "Dark Tempus, Tempus, Doom of the False Bloods....heh. My favorite." He smiled, momentarily fascinated by the blade before his attention snapped back to her. He was taller still than the stooped old man that he'd been upon taking up this journey. Nor was his hair as white as it had been. He was becoming....younger. Or perhaps it was only her perception again. Soon, he'd be just a little older the false claimant from above. "So, ready to see how our little girl is doing?" He quipped, shooting her a warm ? and annoyingly genuine smile.

Tempus Fugit

Date: 2015-07-26 09:43 EST
Meanwhile above, temporal normalcy had resumed. The shrouded figure didn't bother to adopt a ruse again, and instead slowly turned in a circle until it stared at the closed door way and paused for a moment, stymied. The remote for the door, carefully etched with glyphs on its inside panels to prevent creatures such as him from using it, swung like a pendulum losing momentum. The shrouded figure, however, was not merely an ethereal specter that would possess. Extending its arm, black electrical looking energy surged forward and ensnared the control....and began to travel along the circuitry, deep below.

Up until this point, Leta had been doing well keeping her cool. She remained calm while her sister told her about a man who new about her secret warehouse projects. Ages, now revealed to be Brend, had been aggravating her the whole way over. Even the imposter was trying to confuse and manipulate her, but Leta had remained calm, at least on the outside. Any composure she had left was lost as Brend made his comment about "their little girl". She snapped her body in lightning speeds to face him and attempted to grab him by the throat. She didn't intend to kill him, but she wanted to dig her nails in to emphasize her point. She would have known full well that his own speed was no match for her own, no matter how vampirically enhanced, but at that moment she didn't care.

"How dare you! She was your and Lydia's weak seed. I made her into a great being. She is mine alone!" Once the rage in her eyes died down, what he had said hit her. She took a step back and said with a hint of distress, "Wait. What do you mean' Why is she here?"

Though Leta's actions were rushed and somewhat sudden to her, Brend experienced them through the auspices of Tempus - which had automatically thrown up a time dilation field around him as she turned on him. She was moving at full speed, he was simply capable of observing things going much faster, so the tirade seemed languid. He took time to admire her sinuous, deadly grace as her fingers reached for his throat; he literally had all the time in the world, the small space they were in, the limited amount of people he had to effect made Tempus's abilities seemed magnified and he could have simply moved aside with literally time to spare....but he didn't.

Blood Sister

Date: 2015-07-26 09:46 EST
He knew that some part of her, even if it wasn't the part that he was confronting right now, was concerned about "their" daughter. Not concerned.

Frightened.

Instead of moving, he let her fingers wrap around his throat, and simply met her eyes with his own sad stare. "First, she is not a thing to be owned. By you, or anyone. Secondly, she's here because of you. And your pride. Putting her into Company wet works, that's what you call "great?" Your sister would be ashamed." He spoke softly, and quickly. The further the elevator fell, the closer Tempus time distortion came to collapsing; the wards below were varied and layered, and it seemed included contingencies for temporal tampering. "And judging from your business attache we met upstairs, I'd say you or she or your "Company' has the attention of things it probably would rather remain "under the radar" of. Unless I don't know you at all.? His eyes had remained on hers those few moments, daring her to say otherwise. He opened his mouth to speak again, then closed it. He dropped his gaze from her eyes to the arm attached to the hand at his throat.

He had assigned her her sister's shame, and it hurt her because she knew he was right. Knowing she was breaking, Leta knew she had to pull herself together. This was no place to have one's mind clouded. He was right on several accounts; one of Leta's pet projects would have been enough to bring the girl there, and somehow they had gained someone's notice. She slowly released her grasp on his neck, then let her hand fall to her side. She stared at him for a moment, silently acknowledging his disapproval with how she handled the girl. She felt no remorse for her actions, though. She felt she had done much for the girl, things she wished had been done for her.

Tempus Fugit

Date: 2015-07-26 09:51 EST
Now, she simply wanted to focus on the task at hand. "With her here, the situation has changed," she began. "Do you know what I do here" What I have here" "Who I have here?" She asked it as a simple yes or no question because she didn't want either of them to go into it. She just needed to know how much he knew. If he knew as much as she expected, she wouldn't have to take time she didn't have to cover her tracks and make up feasible excuses.

"I said I was here for Lydia. I didn't mean I figured she would be here. Not....like that." He seemed distracted as he answered, he was carefully gauging the temporal bubble. His gaze flashed from the elevator doors back to her; his looks never lasted long. From her point of view, at least. Long ago, he'd learned not to stare too long - not at Leta, at least - while she could see you doing it. All it earned was a reprisal from a barbed tongue. "So, yes, obviously....our daughter." He cleared his throat. "This can go one of two ways: either you try to fool me with a long list of obscure, misleading information about what?s going on here, and get mad at me when I pick apart your logic or....ah, to hell with it. Do I know what and who' Yeah. I do. Do you?"

Brend's timing was, as usual, perfectly suited to him. His cryptic question as an answer to her question was punctuated by the 'ding? of the elevator as it stopped.

Leta had stared at him while he rambled on. She debated her strategy, since he would find out about her little science project soon enough. She decided she would focus on the girl, at least she was a personal motivation for both of them. The girl would undoubtedly find the project, so Leta could find two birds with one stone. She just needed a stone, and that's exactly what they were on their way to get. Leta knew the warehouse levels by heart.

Blood Sister

Date: 2015-07-26 09:54 EST
Inner Archives. Sub Level 5.

It was a huge storage room hundreds of yards long and wide, filled with rows upon rows of long shelves holding boxes, crates, totes, and everything else that The Company wanted sorted and analyzed and stored. The wide open space had plenty of lighting over each set of shelves as well as overhead, but it was the odd fixture suspended up in the middle of the room that made the most dramatic statement. It was clear Leta knew what to watch for as her eyes immediately went to search for the ominously glowing black sphere while she answered Brend incredulously, "Of course I kno-". She did not get to see the orb pulse twice, as her attention instead fell to the sword that swung in to the elevator as the doors opened.

The sword belonged to a mimic of the last person who'd tripped the security system on the archive level - Layla Tolliver. Brend's blade had cleared its sheath and knocked the mimics aside. Among the rankings of the First Sword, there were few who could have bested him, and the mimic was - fortunately for him, he supposed - only trained as well as the person it copied. After its blade was batted to the side, he bull rushed "her", knocking her from the doorway and making safe passage for Leta.

"If there's something here we need," he kept his face to the mimic, circling around behind it - or attempting to, as it turned its back to Leta to face him, "We should get it and go. I don't know what kind of other toys you've got waiting down here." He couldn't hear it, but Leta could. In the distance, two sets of footfalls made a pattering echo through the room that was, except for the hum of power overhead, silent. Brend saw one first, his attention went from the mimic to watching someone come down one of the corridors between the shelves. His eyebrows rose and his guard lowered somewhat towards the mimic. "Lydia?" While his attention was on the "Lydia? mimic, the Layla mimic lashed out with her blade, and though her attempt was clumsy he wasn't paying attention and took a cut near between his bicep and elbow, making his arm go slack and his sword fall to the ground - which he soon set to scrambling after. His focus reverted to the Layla mimic.

Tempus Fugit

Date: 2015-07-26 10:02 EST
Leta darted out of the elevator. It was clear from her direct path that she knew exactly where she needed to go, and that she knew time was of the essence. Under normal circumstances, she would have been surveying the scene to assess for dangers, but on this level, she knew the dangers" all too well. By the time she ran around several of the high shelves, she had completely disappeared from view.

She stopped and looked up to see a vacant space on the shelf. Someone had gotten to it first. By the look of the mimic they had run into at the elevator, it was clear to her that the girl had been here. But then Leta heard a voice, exactly like her own. "Leta," it whispered, toying with her. She looked around. Her own mimic had to be around here somewhere. Like her, it would undoubtedly be unseen" until it was too late. She turned to race back to where she left Brend.

The sounds of battle echoed amidst the shelves as she ran, and unfortunately none of those sounds came from the direction of the elevator. Not only that, but the elevator itself was gone, having descended further into the complex according to the lighted arrow.

"Leta! Here!" Brend's voice echoed from a corridor to her left, but before she could move - even at vampire speeds - another far more disturbing voice spoke.

"Mommy....daddy is beating me..." the voice was a young adult, clearly to old to use those words, yet the soft deadly edge with which they were issued made them somewhat unnerving. Near the direction of the second voice, metal clashed on metal.

"Leta?" Brend's voice again - opposite side of the room from the first one that had sounded, this one sounded more confused.

A gun cocked dangerously close to her head, and a voice - her own voice - spoke from right beside her, "I'd hate to be you, if I were me."

Leta had stopped in mid step from all the chaos. Even if her own voice wasn't a give away, she was familiar with the sound of her own gun. She sighed, as if already tired of the fighting, and then responded, "I hate being me half the time, too." Leta then suddenly ducked down and elbowed herself in the side. She knew it certainly wouldn't be enough to take her down, or even hurt her, but she just needed a distraction to get her aim off her. Leta began to run hazardly, weaving through the shelves towards the second Brend who sounded confused.

Layla

Date: 2016-03-16 20:52 EST
Part V: Photogenesis

~~~

"I am dead because I lack desire, I lack desire because I think I possess. I think I possess because I do not try to give. In trying to give, you see that you have nothing; Seeing that you have nothing, you try to give of yourself; Trying to give of yourself, you see that you are nothing: Seeing that you are nothing, you desire to become; In desiring to become, you begin to live." - Ren" Daumal

~~~

"To live would be an awfully big adventure." - Robin Williams, Hook

~~~

Lower Archives. Sub Level 5-B: Project Phoenix.

Layla took several steps backwards until her back leaned against the rear wall of the elevator. Trying to use the limited time to catch her breath, she hung her head, closing her eyes for a moment. She opened them to see the tote she still carried. She was supposed to be here investigating an assumed break-in. Just like the keycard in her pocket, something in this tote was supposed to be a key to help her get to something on the next level. She thought, anyway.

The directions she were given were even more vague than usual, and sudden. They didn't come through Steven like her typical Company instructions. In fact, Stephen may not have even been aware of them. She was called directly, told to come right away, and to come alone. She didn't have time to tell him where she was going. She could die down here in these circles of hell and no one would even know.

It was now that Layla grew worried. The security guard that was supposed to be here to guide her, had been shot in the previous level....by her. There were circumstances, she told herself. He would have died anyway, and at least she learned that the mimics that attacked them would disappear if one of the originals had died, but as an "original? herself, she just wasn't willing to die in order to make her's disappear.

Layla continued staring at the junk in her arms as the questionable elevator music played overhead. At least the decrepit music player from the tote seemed to have been some help. It seemed to malfunction at the most opportune times, skipping on random tracks that just happened to instruct her on her how to get around the various obstacles in order to reach the elevator. Well, the lights overhead helped too, directing a path for her. No, she thought, there were just too many random occurrences to be truly random. When she entered the warehouse, the crane seemingly worked by itself to allow her passage down to the first sublevel. There was even dark figure when she first arrived. She initially suspected him to be the unsuccessful thief, but maybe this person was helping her. None of this made any sense.

Lightfall

Date: 2016-03-16 20:57 EST
She had to think, but she didn't have time. She had to go by what she knew. She knew she just left a level with a mimic of herself, with her identical skills and weapons. If she could use some weapons in this tote, she might be able to get an edge up on her competition. The katanas.

Shifting the large tote with one arm and balancing it on her hip, she pulled out one of the twin blades. As soon as she held it to examine it, she recognized it. She felt a pit in her stomach as she began ransacking through the tote, using the blade to toss things off to the sides of the bin. They couldn't be, she thought, but they were, his sunglasses. She knew they were his because she had left them on his cold, dead body when she went to confirm his identity for The Company.

She didn't have time to process anything else as the elevator gave a soft 'ding? announcing its presence on her requested floor.

The elevator doors opened into a scene from a science fiction movie; the dim, flickering lights were joined with an omnipresent green hued glow from within bio-stasis tubes which stood in rows of six, two columns deep, on either side of the walkway which led from the elevator doors to the back of the room.

At the chambers far end lay a body on a surgical bed. The inert figure lay in apparent peace, blissfully unaware of the amount of wires which were attached to its brain through a wiring harness that was somehow coupled into the back of its skull. A complex computer network dominated the wall behind the figures bed; the wires which ran from the figure traced directly back to the massive network, then back through bundles of cables to each of the bio-stasis tubes.

The figures within the tubes were almost as obscured as the one at the back of the room who lay draped beneath a sheet; long black hair floated back and forth within the chemical mixture they were suspended in, hiding the parts of their faces that weren't already concealed beneath breathing apparatuses.

Layla

Date: 2016-03-16 21:00 EST
The physicality of the bodies in the tubes strongly resembled one another, if one could get past each of their inherent unique aspects: at least one was completely albino, another darker than charcoal; one had hair like a lions mane which was matched by tufts of wild "fur" along its forearms and the back of its calves, and one had no hair at all - which made it look even more alien from the others; one had overly pronounced bone structure - spikes even protruding backwards from its elbows and upwards from its knees, while another looked softer, almost doughy, with no hard angles at all; more than a pair of them even had a decidedly effeminate cast, one of them being obviously female in its proportions - despite it otherwise bearing the otherwise strong resemblance to those that were somewhat more obviously male.

With the tote still suspended on her hip with one arm and one of the katanas in her other hand, Layla cautiously began to walk out into the room. She couldn't help but stare at the figures in the tubes, half suspecting them to jump from their slumber to attack her like the mimics she had faced above. What began as a watchful eye, turned to one of curiosity. She began to wander closer to the tubes, trying to understand the purpose for their distinctions, while attempting to recognize their similarities as well. Her attention soon turned towards the central figure in the back on which everything in the room seemed to be converging.

The faceplate of the music player lit sporadically, cycling between tracks apparently directionless, as the light flickered on and off. Lights within the cylinders began to slowly illuminate the figures within them, apparently sensitive to someone having entered the room. Simultaneously at the back of the room where her attention had now fallen, screens to either side of the inert body powered to life. The computer banks to the left of the table showed a simple menu: "New Entry", or "Log Viewer / Interactive Assistant". The computer banks on the right side of the medical table showed strings of coding cycling in the background, while the foreground held a password prompt and a five minute timer which had begun to count down as soon as the screens came to life.

Lightfall

Date: 2016-03-16 21:08 EST
Although the figure on the table was facially unidentifiable due to the faceplate which covered most everything from the upper lip and up, the edges of what could be seen were now lighted by something from within the faceplate itself; concurrently, various fluids began to stream through a network of fine surgical tubing into the figures neck and spine.

"Oh, this isn't going well" Layla thought sarcastically. She could tell she wasn't going to have any time to examine the situation with a five minute timer and the body in the back getting pumped with all types of fluids, undoubtedly going to bring it back to life in just enough time to kill her if the computer self destruct timer didn't blow her up first. She assumed the best way to stop the countdown, and inevitable destruction, would be to get the right password. She ran over to the computer on the left to see what she could do in the "Menu" to find a password for the computer on the right. Dropping the tote next to her but keeping a katana in hand, she attempted to access the "Log Viewer / Interactive Assistant". She needed all of the assistance she could get.

"Good evening, Ms. Tollivar." A blue, humanoid, holographic figure appeared standing between her and the figure on the table. "I am quite certain you don't have security authorization for this project. I am obligated to tell you at this juncture that all information is being concurrently recorded on Horizon. I am authorized, however, to comply with your requests, up to the limits of your clearance. How do you wish to proceed?"

The visor on the figure's faceplate had been lit the entire time with a mild, green glow. As the inner lights of the bio-stasis tubes rose to full brilliance and the timer opposite her reached the 3:30 mark, the visor changed to yellow. The holograph spoke again, "Ms. Tollivar, I'm obligated to warn you that security measures will become active in less than three and a half minutes; also, there is an anomalous energy signature in the chamber you should not be able to detect with either normal or heightened senses, though at the rate it is gaining cohesion, it will be detectable with standard human senses in less than three minutes."

Layla

Date: 2016-03-16 21:14 EST
Layla jumped back at the voice, knocking against the tote. She instinctually made a slice towards the figure as she jumped back, only realizing as her blade went through it that it was a hologram. She stood upright, though her defensive posture showed she was still on edge. Although she was oddly comforted by its willingness to help, her comfort dwindled as the lights reminded her of the time issue. She was trying to think of what to say, but she was starting to get annoyed that the stupid music player must have turned on when she kicked against it. She could barely hear it while the hologram spoke, but she could hear it more clearly now, Evanesence's "Bring Me To Life". Trying to ignore the inconvenience, she quickly asked the hologram her most pressing question, "How can I disable the security measures in the least amount of time?"

The figures speculative tone was matched by a raised eyebrow as it answered, "A vague question. I am afraid that the time it would take me to address it properly would be rendered moot by your ultimate termination by those same measures you seek to disable; not only are they layered, but disabling one will reduce the implementation time of the others. Currently, the Complex has registered you in breach of your security clearance. This," the figure paused, briefly, having a brief moment of clarity before its statement of self-determination, "I....am capable of disabling all security protocols which you have inadvertently implemented, but I require voice and retinal verification from upper management." Upon finishing his statement, as though he were looking to some deity from on high. His moment of reverie was interrupted somewhat by a change in the lighting scheme which took over the prone, masked body. The lights from the figures visor turned green, and it sat upright suddenly, but made no other movement.

Simultaneously, a golden amorphous gloaming began to illuminate the rest of the chamber; one large mass appearing in the air amongst and between the bio-stasis pods, one within and around the crate that Layla had all but dragged with her, and one in the air beside the seemingly holographic blue figure. The music player jumped songs, and from the small speaker blared Beastie Boys "Fight for your Right?. Although the room was suddenly well, if strangely lit, it was still mostly silent - except for the music and whatever conversation would take place between Layla and the hologram.

Lightfall

Date: 2016-03-16 21:20 EST
She gave the hologram a death glare as it rambled on, wasting what little time she had. Her stare was interrupted as the bedridden figure sat up. Gasping suddenly, she jumped back, then looked down quickly towards the tote. She grabbed the second sword, and turned her defensive posture towards the figure. Keeping an equal eye on the masses appearing around her, she was trying to think of what to ask the hologram. Even if there weren't threats surrounding her, she might have considered that he seemed to know her, and maybe he could help her with her objective down here, if he even knew. Her surroundings were posing a greater danger, so her thoughts were centered there. She added quickly, slightly more sarcastic than she meant, "Ok. Here's the thing, buddy. You can probably do a threat assessment right now. Can you just tell me what I need to do so stay alive the longest with all these things" Is this dude on the table going to attack me" Is he first priority or what?" The song wasn't totally lost on her. She knew she was going to have to fight, probably a lot of things, probably everything in the room, but if this super computer type thing could help, she wanted to use it to whatever advantage she could.

"To address your queries as posed, according to dynamic data, the 'dude" will attack you. Your first priority should be his termination; Designate: Knightsword, the 'dude's official Pengallen I.D., is a first tier security measure. It has programmed instructions to terminate intruders. It is worth noting that the anomaly has already arrived, as is evidenced by changes to the lighting within this chamber; the intensity of the changes do not seem to be accompanied by any other known or unknown energy signature, however. All other possible threats and security measures which have been activated are not currently within range to cause you physical harm." His matter of fact answers to her questions went uninterrupted as he looked first from her, then to the golden glow 'standing" beside him.

Layla

Date: 2016-03-17 20:37 EST
He made no remark, though his scans must have detected -something-, as the glow from the tote leapt to her arm as she drew the other blade; all it seemed to do or be, however, was a change in light. Golden light flowed from the swords hilt and down her arm, navigating around her waist and continuing on its way, and unobtrusively staying out of her literal and metaphorical face.

Layla started to get worried as the light began to flow around her from her arm. She looked up with a worried expression to the hologram, but she nodded as he said she was "not currently' within harm of anything besides the dude. Knightsword. In an instant, she stepped to the head of the table and, in attempting to ready one of her blades, she hoped to run up behind him as he sat, then stab him in the back before he could pose more of a threat to her.

"Now commencing multi-spectrum energy scan of the anomaly..." the hologram prattled now somewhat to itself as Layla's attention had shifted elsewhere. The larger gloaming cloud of gold meandered its way amongst the cylinders and had gradually seeped towards the front of the room - and the two other golden clouds; upon coming into contact with the humanoid one which wasn't entwining itself around Layla, the two merged, and seemed to condense together. It was again in a roughly humanoid form when Layla began to execute her attack on the Knightsword, and it went from somewhat nodding to Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It", with what constituted a head that was becoming much more visibly human, to throwing its "arms? over that freshly formed head and mouthing silently in outrage. It watched as Layla's attack slid directly through the Knightsword's body sending a spray of ichor and whatever passed for blood across the floor in front of the table. The room was void of motion, for that one moment. Suddenly breaking the still, the Knightsword's masked and visored face snapped directly to Layla and, sword still embedded in its back, it flung itself sideways and away from her and rolled in mid air to land on its feet - tearing cables which ran from the wall to its helm interface in the process, sending bits of plastic and metal off the back of its head covering.

Lightfall

Date: 2016-03-17 20:42 EST
Any normal, living, human would have been struck dead by her attack - vital organs skewered. The Knightsword, however, appeared to be beyond that. The golden glowing "man' slowly brought his hands down over his face and to his hips and, silently, his mouth continued to work, "Heart, good shot. Twenty points. Next time take the head for Game/Set/Match." The soundless rant was accompanied by appropriate hand gestures of frustration. Though the form may have been ambiguous, the personality at this point must have surely been without question.

Layla stared wide eyed as Knightsword jumped up and turned his attention towards her. With one sword wedged in his back, she held a death grip on the other left in her off hand. Quickly shifting it to her good hand, she lowered herself, taking a wider defensive stance. Already on the alert, she noticed the separate figure taking shape towards the front of the room. She saw his mouth moving, but didn't register the words at first. It couldn't be him. Instead of taking another offensive attack, she paused, something she would undoubtedly regret later, but she couldn't help but focus on if her eyes were deceiving her. Only then did she make out a few of its last words. "Head for Game/Set/Match."

She paused when she shouldn't have; there are no time-outs in real combat. Knightsword's arm bent backwards at an almost impossible angle, perhaps removing all doubt that the suit of meat in front of her was just that, and whatever sentience had resided in it was certainly no longer at home; it grasped the sword by the blade and worked it from its own back. Blade in hand, it crouched and drew it back, firing it towards her like a javelin and pouncing in quickly after it. She'd have little time to react to both the projectile and the Knightswords own hurtling body. Elsewhere in the room, the amorphous glowing entity became even brighter, almost flare like and hard to look at directly. Amidst the chaos, the holograms voice seemed to be an almost ludicrous unconcerned drone, "Super dense photonic cohesion. Class 7 manifestation; likely attributable to the subjects genealogy. Fascinating.?

Layla

Date: 2016-03-17 20:43 EST
From the look on her face, it was clear that Knightsword taking the sword from his back was definitely something she hadn't considered. In giving her opponent a weapon, she had even their playing levels, though, from his unrestricted body, she was concerned he already had enough point in his favor. As he lunged towards her, she parried the sword to one side, while stepping off to the other in an attempt to dodge as well. She knew his charge would put him closer to her, so she took the advantage of their movements and took off running passed him as she could, quickly turning when she got passed him to face him again. She needed to figure out a game plan, but she was getting frustrated with the hologram, who wasn't doing much to help.

She was essentially playing tag with him now, and that just wasn't going to cut it. The coloring behind its visor changed, flashes of orange and red glared where its light fell on the visible parts of Knightswords skin, just as veins surged and became more visible on its body. "Designate Knightsword has used some sort of adrenal stimulants, its strength has increased and reaction times decreased. Other security protocols have been temporarily suspended pending the results of this altercation," still the hologram droned on - which if you consider was easy for it to do, given that it faced no true danger. Knightsword didn't bother to even turn to face her as the hologram reported on its tactics; it dropped into a crouch, rocked forward, then backwards and sprung into the air, moving fast and hard with arms outstretched towards Layla.

The hologram tried to inform her, though he wouldnt finish the message before Knightswords leap had been completed, "Designate Knightsword has detailed combat profiles on all Company employees, he can anticipate..." Meanwhile, the golden glow moved to where the discarded sword lay on the ground, and bunched up above its hilt, coalescing about it. Every bulb in the room flared - and burst, leaving the only light source to be the golden glow which was at this point more than intense enough to light the room entirely.

Lightfall

Date: 2016-03-17 20:50 EST
She saw the writing on the wall as Knightsword crouched down. She mimicked him, lowering herself as well. But as he jumped up towards her, she threw herself onto her back. As he lunged on top of her, she continued her rock back and kicked out and back with her legs, hoping to propel him over her. She then quickly got to her feet and turned to see how he landed. She was stuck in defense. "I don't need updates!" Layla yelled to the hologram, losing her cool completely after hearing things she didn't want to hear.

Knightsword went crashing through another of the containment tubes, sending glass and liquid cascading out across the floor, but managed to land on its feet and with its enhanced reflexes it was actually on its feet and had crouched to pounce when the voice of the hologram - no longer emanating as a hologram, but just a disembodied voice over speakers asked, "Are you certain?"

The light suddenly died down to a pale golden glow, and another voice entered the conversation, "Well hey there good looking." The voice wavered slightly as it spoke from within the now muted gleam; the discarded sword was now held aloft by a hand that seemed to be made of light that was becoming more and more corporeal the dimmer the light became. Knightswords visor covered face snapped back and forth between looking at her, and this new potential threat.

If she had any doubt before, those doubts faded away when she heard his voice. Though her body was turned towards Knightsword, with her weapon readied, she couldn't help but look to the newly forming figure. In the dimming light, she had to focus to see him. "Kaiden?" she said timidly, the frustration in her last bark to the hologram now completely gone.

"Actually," he walked forward with a perceptible hitch in his gate, arm flexing with his sword back in it; the one spot of light that was still glowing strongly was where his hand touched the hilt of the sword. "I was talking to him." the blade of the sword raised to gesture towards Knightsword. "He's hot, I've gotta admit, but he needs a haircut, I'd say twelve to fourteen inches from the top should do the trick. Anytime now." He suddenly took an exaggerated stomp forward with his blade raised, and Knightsword pivoted and turned directly into his feigned attack.

Layla

Date: 2016-03-17 20:54 EST
Layla's eyes narrowed slightly as he said the comment wasn't intended for her. Even in this high pressure situation, he could still aggravate her. She felt herself flex harder around the sword. If he wasn't already dead" She quickly changed her target, understanding Kaiden's distraction, and lunged towards Knightsword. Learning her lesson on trying to impale him, she aimed to slice through his neck. She would save any biting comments for Kaiden until later, in case she might undo his distractionby speaking.

Layla's slice was hard and fast enough, and Kaiden's second blade sharp enough, that Knightswords head flew from its shoulders and the body slumped to the ground beneath it, all in one quick movement. "Nice work legs, speaking of which..." his cockiness wavered as he looked at her and the sword in his hand aimed tip first towards the floorboards and plunged in there like a cane to keep him upright. "Whoa, I might need to borrow them until I get mine back properly."

Just then, the voice of the hologram interrupted them, "Ms. Tollivar, if I might add one more thing," the now absent hologram droned.

Layla snapped, "What the hell do you want now?"

Kaiden had dropped to one knee, and the glow had all but gone out from him now, though he still looked healthy enough. Even the light from where he touched the sword was dimmed, but in that faded light, and despite the sheen of sweat on his skin, his smile at her response was visible.

The hologram continued, "Security protocols have been enacted to perform a complete disavowal of this project using the Voidspace protocols," She was starting at Kaiden, trying to process everything, "this facility will be depressurized in ten minutes, and everything will be removed to Voidspace. Thank you for your service." The voice faded to nothing, and the room finally went completely and totally black.

Tempus Fugit

Date: 2016-03-28 22:22 EST
Lower Archives 3-C: Project Shadowdancer.

Shots rang out moments after Leta took off running; the entire clip was emptied in her direction by the time the real Leta had moved from visual range. The mimic took off after her and rounded the corner, only to find her....gone. Then the sound of another confrontation. "She" pursued quickly, and in a moment the body of the security guard was brought into view, held up at the shoulder by the Brend-mimic, which was wearing a very Brend like smile, from one corridor, and the Layla-mimic coming from another corridor.

The three of them now totally surrounded Leta, and the mimics might be out of ammo....but they weren't above using their hands. Suddenly, the Brend-mimic shoved the corpse of the security guard forward, sending it flying towards the true Leta. Three on one, and no Brend in sight.

One shot grazed the top of Leta's shoulder, one went through an arm, while the other two were lodged in her back as she ran. Four wasn't enough to slow her down, but she felt each piercing blow, as did her mimic. Leta soon became more concerned about three surrounding her. As the Brend mimic threw the security guard at her, she crouched down, letting the body topple onto her. She pushed it up and back over her as she rose, hoping to use the body's momentum to hit her mimic behind her. Hand to hand was not her forte, but her normal defense of mental domination wouldn't work on them. She was worried to get into melee with any of them for the sole fact that she was hesitant to hurt their originals by default, though she was quite certain she would be the one hurt the most.

She took a few running steps with a high kick, hoping to hit him flat on the chest to knock him back. She didn't need a way to win, she needs a way out of their trap.

Just as her foot was about to extend, time slowed down to a crawl, with one major exception, which was not a what - but a who. Opposite Leta, opposite the man she was about to kick, Brend strode into the frame at a light jog, as though he wasn't effected by the time distortion. He reached over his shoulder and in a single, fluid movement that even Kaiden would have envied, he pulled his bastard sword, Millennium.

Blood Sister

Date: 2016-03-28 22:24 EST
He drew the blade back with both hands on its hilt, he glanced over the shoulder of the mimic Leta was about to kick - and blew her a kiss. Time suddenly leaped back to full speed and Leta's kick was delivered square to the chest of the mimic in front of her, sending it flying backwards just as Millennium ripped forward and cut him in two at the waist, sending torso one way and legs another. His attack never really stopped, it was just the one, smooth fluid swing, and then it was if the blade simply reversed directions and he was attacking another of the mimics, and both its arms had been severed and dropped uselessly to the floor.

The last of them turned to tactical retreat.

Leta hid her gratitude with a glare. "I was handling it," she barked to him as she watched Layla's mimic dart off. She wouldn't have been able to hurt their daughter either. "She was here. We have to go further down. We're running out of time," she said, and instantly regretted her choice of words. Though she suspected it was coming, she wouldn't wait for his comeback, quickly running towards the elevator.

The defeated mimics followed suit of the earlier mimic of the security guard and returned to their central command, unnoticed largely to Brend and Leta. "This way." Brend didn't wait to check if she was following, he'd extended his displacement over her. She couldn't be attacked until she caught up with real time anyways - which was now localized on him. The jaunt to the elevators felt short, but perhaps that was due to his time field as well. There was no rushing the elevator though, as it seemed to crawl upwards two levels towards them.

With a ding, the elevator doors opened to reveal a couple already occupied the lift. The man had the woman pinned to the back of the elevator, and she had one arm around his neck and a leg raised with the thigh almost around his waist. The two were obviously involved in a passionate embrace. Brend frowned, and had only begun to clear his throat when the arm not wrapped around the mans neck darted around him to level a pistol at Brend's face, and the man who'd had her pinned panned his face just enough towards Brend and Leta that he could make them out, and they him.

Tempus Fugit

Date: 2016-03-28 22:45 EST
"Huh." Classic Brend, ever the intellectual. Then his eyes narrowed when he realized or remembered who the woman was.

Leta was more focused on the man in the elevator. If Layla had retrieved him, it would have set off" "Change in plans. We're going up," she said to Brend as she smacked him on the back to distract him from the scene, knowing fully well his mind set.

"Good work, I see you completed your assignment. We must go before the final 'security protocols" kick in..." She said to the girl, hoping to ease her into a sense that all was going according to her plan. Entering the elevator, she pulled out her own keycard. She hoped that would only prove her standing and authority in The Company as she swiped it. Sliding down a small hidden panel revealed a keypad with numbers and a few symbols. She began furiously typing away. "This will buy us a few moments," she half-lied.

Brend had stumbled into the elevator as Kaiden and Layla uncoupled and Leta began fiddling with the elevator controls. The doors closed and the elevator lurched into motion. Brend glanced between the youths, "So. Do your parents know you're down here" I'll bet they're worried sick. Imagine, coming down here to....make out. That's all that was going on down here, right?" His eyes narrowed, its as if he'd completely forgotten about their purpose. "Honey," he turned to Leta, "their parents. They're probably worried. Wouldn't you say?"

Kaiden started to speak up, "Uncle Bre-."

Brend cut him off, "Yeah, we've met, I know; Kaiden, have you even met her father?" He turned back to Leta, "Can you believe this kid?? For what it was worth, Kaiden looked completely amused, if a little shaky. His arms hung limp beside him as he leaned against the back of the elevator, his hand subtly seeking out Layla's behind both their backs. Too bad neither even considered that the back wall of the elevator was mirrored.

Layla was more than convinced that the woman assigned her the task, but she was mildly embarrassed that a Company employee would see her engaged in such activities. It helped to ease other concerns when Kaiden recognized the man with her, and as he took her hand.

Blood Sister

Date: 2016-03-28 22:49 EST
Leta quickly turned from the controls to give him a stinging glance as he called her "Honey". She shook her head and finished typing in a few more pass-codes. She slammed the panel shut and answered Brend while glaring at Kaiden, seeing him take the girl's hand in the mirror, "I still question his devotions" to The Company." The elevator soon opened to the highest floor, Sub-Level One. Leta flew out, leading them to the stairwell to the ground floor above them.

Once they were all up and outside, the warehouse quickly imploded on itself, leveling it to the ground. Brend let loose with a string of expletives as the building collapsed behind them. "Seriously?"

A car was parked nearby. Leta continued her run towards the car, getting out a set of keys from her pocket. They were the same set of keys from the security guard that she swiped when the Brend mimic threw his body on her. Brend eagerly called out, "Shotgun!" He slid into the front passenger seat as Kaiden and Layla jumped into the back seat.

Sirens sounded in the distance, though. Brend rubbed at his face, as though he were trying to rearrange it, then rubbed furiously at his eyes, and sighed. "Maybe you did make her great," talking to Leta now, though not looking at her, "But Lydia and I still made her." The exact reverse argument, or statement, that she had stated earlier. He glanced back at Kaiden, "And your folks want to see you too, kid."

Leta drove away for a few moments, and in the distance flashing lights closed on the site of the implosion. Kaiden sat cycling through songs on his music player, when Layla slid her hand into his snatched control to stop his constant tapping on its screen. With an irritated look on her face, she promptly selected the last one he'd been looking at, then turned to look out the window.

A few bars of "Still in Love" by the Latency played, then suddenly became much louder as the Bluetooth was picked up and it switched to the car stereo. Brend rode in silence until he started listening to the lyrics, then he looked back at Kaiden.

"Haven't see one of those in years, do you mind?" he gestured to the music player, which Kaiden handed to him....to look at. Brend began to cycle through the songs, not picking any, until one particular one caught his eye. His thumb hovered over the Play button.

Kaiden started to object. "Hey, no one else touch-"

Brend snapped his fingers and Kaiden froze in place, as did Layla staring out the window. He hit Play, and Heartlands "I Loved Her First? filtered over the car speakers. And he turned to look out the window on the other side.

Layla

Date: 2016-05-25 21:27 EST
Epilogue I

Rhydin. Southgate District. Ambras-Ortea Law.

Layla had asked around about the woman that gave her the mission to go to the warehouse. Apparently one of her code names was "The Seer". But when she asked Stephen about her, he said that he was unfamiliar with her. This surprised her, as Stephen acted as her knowledgeable middle man, relaying messages and assignments between her and The Company. But she wasn't the only one who seemed surprised.

"Are you sure it was Ms. Tolmay that gave you the mission?" Stephen asked later as he walked into her office.

Layla stared at him a moment as she sat behind her desk, confused that the woman he claimed not to have any knowledge of, now suddenly had a name. She noticed his eyes twinge slightly after he realized his error, then answered his question, "Well, yeah. I mean, she said she did."

Stephen had worked with Leta much longer than he had with Layla. Leta would provide him with assignments in order to help Layla work her way up The Company ladder, and he would give her those assignments. That was how it worked, at least until now. It seemed like Leta was breaking with tradition.

"How did you say you got the mission to go to the warehouse?" he asked, sensing something wasn't quite right.

"It was printed out on a paper on my desk." She answered. "I assumed you left it for me." He only stared back at her, but his silence spoke volumes. Now she knew something wasn't right.

"I'll look into it," he said, trying to give her a sense of security as he left the room. It didn't help.

Tolmay.

She knew nothing of the woman, but she remembered when she first heard the name. She had gone to one of the local Company offices to set up some details for a mission. As she spoke with the secretary in the lobby, a man carrying a large wrapped bundle draped over his arms and a massive sword over his back came in, requesting to speak with "Ms. Tolmay". She took note of him not only because he was gutsy enough to walk into a Company headquarters with a blatant weapon on his back, but also because he knew Layla's name too' more specifically, her last name. She tried to play a big game with her team, but she knew she was so low on The Company totem pole that she would be nothing to anyone, yet he seemed to recognize her.

She hadn't given the incident another thought until now. At the time, whatever concerns she may have had were soon an insignificant memory, as it was only a few days later that she was asked to come back down to the Company facility to identify a body. She knew who it had to be when she got the call. Only one member of her team had disappeared. After positively identifying him, she had to accept the truth that she had been trying for a year to deny herself. He was dead. Yet, now he was alive and she was determined to find out what connection Ms. Tolmay had to the death, or rebirth, of her subordinate.

Blood Sister

Date: 2016-05-26 19:49 EST
Epilogue II

Rhydin. Dockside District. Curtea de Arges Public Park.

"How dare you call me here," Leta said to Stephen as she approached him in the abandoned children's playground in the middle of the night.

"How dare you send her on some suicide mission without even letting me know about it," Stephen bit back as he stood across from her in the darkened park. Before he saw it coming, she slapped him hard across the face. After quickly recovering from the hit, he returned her angered stare, silently demanding an explanation.

"I did not send her there," she said tersely. She felt bad for striking him, though it clearly left no lasting mark on him, physically or emotionally. It was bad enough that an underling would speak to her so, but that he would imply she didn't care about her was much worse in her eyes. But he was more than just an underling to her. He was one of a few that she trusted to know some of her darkest secrets. "You know I would never have allowed her there, not with the things I have been hiding at that warehouse."

"Things, or people?" He corrected her, easing his anger.

"Well, I guess "person' to be more accurate," she said, soothing any leftover hostility in her voice.

He knew, among other things she had been keeping there, that she had kept the boy's body for her experiments and that she had stolen advanced cloning technology some years ago. "I still don't understand why," Stephen said, though he assumed he knew the answer.

"His family line is important?" The self-proclaimed "Seer" trailed off without saying more.

Stephen didn't bother asking questions he knew she wasn't willing to answer. Instead he asked, "So you brought him back through the cloning?"

"No," she said, almost disappointed in her lack of results. "I tried to reconstruct him, but I did not have enough the proper materials to fully recreate him as he was. Then I tried creating something" to replace what he was." She had his father's blood, but not his mother's. The father was willing to give it in exchange for her promise not to desecrate his son's body. Considering the variety of things she had done to the body and his genetic material, she had greatly voided that contract. But without the mother's blood, she tried other substitutions, but only created abominations.

"What about the creations?" He asked, though he knew there was a treasure trove of other technology and magical items down there as well.

"I have someone exploring what is salvageable from the warehouse to be relocated to another safe place," she answered coldly. She accomplished two things while she punched the "codes" into the elevator's control panel as she was fleeing the warehouse with the others. The first was setting the ground floor of the warehouse to self detonate, giving it the appearance to anyone who might have known about the underground storage areas the misguided belief that everything underneath had also been destroyed. The second was sending out a distress call to one of her other prized pupils to help clean up the mess.

"So who do you think sent her there?" Stephen asked, trying to make sense of the whole turn of events.

"I'm not sure, but I have someone to blame," Leta said between clenched teeth. All this time she had stayed off of the girl's radar, quietly pulling strings in her world without her knowing. Though she kept a close eye on her, she could not be a mother to her. The girl reminded her too much of her sister. Even worse, she reminded her of her sister's betrayal. That she would have the audacity to fall for some silly, trivial man and choose him over her was too much for her to bear. She wished she could erase him from her mind as easily as she had done to her sister. Still, at least she could take solace in the thought that she was hurting him. This was all his fault, and she would try her hardest to hurt him again the next time she saw him.

"Don't worry," she said, realizing she hadn't completed her thought to Stephen. "I will be looking into it."

He just nodded as she turned and walked away, appreciating the irony that he had said similar to the girl only hours before. He wondered if it meant as little comfort to her as it did to him.

Tempus Fugit

Date: 2016-06-14 23:50 EST
~~~

"Storms don't come to teach us painful lessons, rather they were meant to wash us clean." ― Shannon L. Alder

~~~

Epilogue III Rhydin. Bristle Crios. Catacombs.

"You know," Brend said, running a hand over his furrowed brow and up into his hair, scrubbing his head as he spoke, "I can't just jump whenever I want, um, whenever I want; sometimes time is calcified." His hand stopped rubbing and pulled down over his face, stretching the skin below his eyes into a comical mock cadaverous glare in the process. "Are you even in there" This is as close as I can get!" His voice had risen, and he angrily snapped his arm out, flinging a rose against the chest of the chiseled ebony figure seated before him.

The petals of the rose which struck the statue's chest were as black as the figure itself - one of the figures at least. There were two, one polished ebony, the other matching alabaster, or so the latter would seem; the white statue also had a peculiar translucent quality, and depending on the angle you viewed it from it looked like it wasn't even there. As well, the darker was slightly larger in form than the lighter statue, though neither held any obvious gender; the statues resembled petrified armor as much as they did people.

"And you," Brend looked towards the lighter of the two inert forms, "you probably don't remember me warning you, do you? Back when you heard about the Harvester's for the first time." He tilted his head, eyes narrowing, marking the tricks that the light played on the figures apparent presence. "At least I'm certain he's here; where the hell are you, anyway?"

"I've been the one watching over him, all this time. And his adopted brother. And your brother," with that last comment he turned on the ebony figure once more, his head tilting. "which I'm sure by now you must have heard how that ended up. I hope you're done reliving old glory soon, which coming from me is heavy handed, I know, but....we're going to need you here, soon. Your son is going to need you. I'm headed to spar with him after I leave here, you know. No you don't know," he muttered, "you've literally got rock for brains. Great."

The figures were coated in dust, neither had moved in an obviously, and neither of them made any move to respond to him now - if they even could. They were statues, after all. On top of that, the ebony statue which he seemed to most frequently address was bound with chains.

"You know," he said as he turned to walk away after having stared at them for several tense, quiet moments, "Sometimes I wonder - even though I've ventured from one end of the spectrum to the other, and actually seen it all happen - what would have happened if I hadn't chosen then and there to die, if I hadn't shown you the way to Extalyon. I wonder if things would have been better that way than they are now."

He entered a long corridor that emptied into the chamber the statues were in, the same one he'd entered through, and his final words echoed hollow through the chamber just before he left.

"But maybe that's just Oblivion talking. And what happens," he continued as he walked down the corridor and out of sight, "if I pray, to one of you? Would that get your attention' Would you answer me then? Seriously, you need to snap out of it soon or I'm going to manipulate time to study and become a world leading proctologist....and see if we can't find your heads."